


Pragma

by Wayfarer_Rye



Series: Psyche, Pneuma and Leukós [2]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Magical Elements, Multi, Polyamory, kuroko's zone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-07-16 03:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16077620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wayfarer_Rye/pseuds/Wayfarer_Rye
Summary: "Pragma is a kind of practical love founded on reason or duty and one’s longer-term interests"Just what is the zone and what kind of effects does it have on a person?





	1. Is it the start of something new, if it was always there?

**Author's Note:**

> Don't know how well this will turn out but may as well throw it out there.

**[Kuroko Tetsuya: Kagami Taiga: Aomine Daiki]**

Tetsuya felt himself surface from the zone as it sunk in that they won. It was a little like walking up abruptly after a too long nap. Leaving you not sure where, when and what is going other than you feel heavy and exhausted.

Tetsuya wobbled as his knees threaten to give out. There was a split second where he accepted he was going to embarrassingly face plant in front of the crowd. Thankfully two sets of arms grabbed him and held him steady. Looking up Tetsuya saw two beaming Taiga and Daiki smiling down at him. He couldn’t help but smile back.

“We won!” Taiga yelled throwing his other arm in the air cheering with everyone else.

“Hell Yeah!” Daiki equally as loud replied. Tetsuya laughed as their excitement was contagious.

The rest of the team joined and soon they were all cheering. They had tried to lift Tetsuya up in celebration but neither of Daiki or Taiga was letting him go. Which was probably for the best as Tetsuya was pretty sure the only reason he was even standing was that of them holding him up.

Tetsuya glanced over at the angry Jabberwock team scanning to see how they were reacting to their loss. They all looked shocked for a long moment until they switched gears to being angry. He felt Taiga and Daiki tense when they heard Silver cuss.

Taiga wished to be gone from the Jabberwock team's presence. They had already laid a hand on Tetsuya once outside of the match. He didn’t quite trust that they wouldn’t do something now that Vorpal Sword beat them. Daiki felt the same as he and Taiga shared a look over Tetsuya’s head. They celebrated and passed around congratulation, but they kept an eye on Jabberwock even as they gave their thanks for the game.

They were leaving the court when Tetsuya muttered, “We all should get checked out by doctors.”

“Coach,” Taiga called, causing Riko to look over to him as well as the rest of the team, “we are going to get check out by medical, can we?” Taiga made a ‘go’ motion.

Riko blinked before turning concerned, “Of course, but why the three of you?”

Tetsuya explained, “We need to make sure that being in the zone didn’t damage out bodies extensively.”

“Ah, right. How about we all go together? Murasakibara and Kise both need to be checked over as well.” Riko said looking over to the two mentioned. Kise and Murasakibara both grimaced at the reminder that they were hurt.

Taiga and Daiki nodded and the three of them began limping their way toward the medic tent with their team following them. They could feel some questioning looks being level at their backs, but it wasn’t the time.

When they entered the medic tent they were are quickly converged on and separated to be checked over.

Once everyone was given the okay. The three of them only needed rest and not to strain themselves for a few weeks. Murasakibara they wrapped up and recommend he get x-rayed just in case. While Kise only needed his leg wrapped and no strenuous activity for a few weeks. Akashi only had some mild eye strain and recommendation of few days rest.

“Riko-chan and I will take Mukkun to get his x-ray,” Momoi promised the doctor. Murasakibara grumbled but didn’t say anything.

“Let’s have the celebration at my place. If someone brings take-out for food that should be fine. I won’t be able to cook today, and I don’t trust anyone on in my kitchen,” Taiga shrugged. No one raised any complaints or denials just nodded.

“Someone needs to bring dessert too, and you don’t keep soda in the house,” Daiki added. He knew that as much fast food as Taiga ate, he was pretty health conscious.

“Riko-chan and I can organize everything while we wait for Mukkun to be done at the hospital,” Momoi cheered. Riko nodded.

“Ki-chin will handle the food,” Murasakibara insisted. Kise nodded violently. Both girls seem to gain depressed demeanors, but no one gave in when the alternative was food poisoning.

“Thank you, Murasakibara-kun” Tetsuya mumbled. Murasakibara just nodded.

Others claimed what they were going to bring but both Taiga and Daiki were distracted. Tetsuya’s eyes seemed to have trouble staying open.

“And you are passing out on us aren’t you,” Daiki chuckled drawing attention to the sleepy Tetsuya who was leaning heavily into Daiki’s chest.

“No,” came the petulant and adorable reply. Taiga let out a huff of a laugh and redistributed Tetsuya’s weight more evenly between Daiki and him.

“Well, you can pass out after you have showered,” Taiga remarked as the three of them walked to get their bags with the curious and questioning stared at their backs.

Something has changed with them


	2. The Zone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just the team eating before the celebration. 
> 
> The zone gets spoken about.

**Kagami Taiga's house.**

 

**[Kuroko Tetsuya .…]**

When they got back to Taiga's place, they took turns cleaning off and Taiga lent them some sweats for comfort sake. Then they all dozed on the couch, recuperating.

Tetsuya must have slipped into a deeper sleep because he had flashes of the game with some absurd changes to it. (green rabbits, giant sky whales and the like)

He was pulled out of the dream with a hand shaking his shoulder.

"Hey, Tetsuya, guests are going to start arriving soon. Taiga made you some tea,” Daiki explained as he removed his hand. He blinked slowly but nodded.

Sitting up from the curl position on the couch, Tetsuya reached for the offered tea. He didn't drink anything just enjoying the warmth of the teacup. The couch dipped at Daiki took a seat beside him.

 

 

**[Aomine Daiki .…]**

 

Daiki couldn't help but be amused by the drowsy look on Tetsuya's face. Tetsuya had passed out almost as soon as he hit the couch. He and Taiga did doze for a bit, but they mostly just mindlessly watched the TV until Taiga got up to make some tea.

He heard knocks on the door signaling that guests were arriving.

"Daiki, can you get the door?" Taiga called from his bedroom.

Sighing he got up and made his way to the door. Opening the door, he was greeted with noise that flooded the once quiet apartment. Daiki knew he was getting some odd looks, but he just moved aside gesturing with an arm.

The first to enter was Momoi, Riko, and Akashi. Thankful the first two did not have anything edible in their hands though they all carried some different sodas and some juices.

Himuro was following a dazed Murasakibara as the purple-haired shuffled in with a purple cast on his arm. They both took a seat on the couch with Himuro hovering. Daiki figured they gave the giant some pain medication when they realized it was broken.

Hyūga and Wakamatsu both trailed behind with more drinks. The four of them went to the kitchen and put the drinks away.

Midorima and his ever-present shadow Takao wandered in next. Midoriama had a box which he took straight to the kitchen.

"Some kind of cake, I think," Takao as he set the food he was carrying on the coffee table. Daiki nodded as he closed the door behind Kise as he came in ladled down with more food.

The others wandered out of the kitchen with a stack of plates and chopsticks. They all gathered around the table.

Daiki took a seat in front of the still lethargic Tetsuya on the floor.

"Where's Kagamicchi?" Kise asked as he glanced around.

Taiga as if on cue wandered out of his room with a sweater

 

 

**[Kagami Taiga…]**

He was only partially surprised when Daiki didn’t put up a fuss when he asked the other to answer the door.

They all avoided mention the weirdness they all have been feeling since the game on the walk back to his place, but Taiga knew eventually they would have to if only because the rest would have questions.   

He found the sweater he was looking for and wander out to his living room as he heard Kise ask where he was.

Rolling his eyes, Taiga exchanged the sweater for the tea cooling in Tetsuya’s hand, “Here.”

He knew that it was a matter of time before Tetsuya got cold and the idiot never remembered to bring his own sweaters.

 “Thank you, Taiga,” Tetsuya muttered as he pulled the large sweater (his favorite sweater) over his head. They both ignored the sharp intake of breath with the casual use of his first name. Taiga dropped beside Daiki sitting in his personal space but neither really cared.

Daiki laughed as leaned on Tetsuya’s knee and looked up to see Tetsuya’s hair standing on end from the static. Tetsuya frown as smoothed it down.  “Still susceptible to outrageous static.” Daiki chuckled.

“Let’s eat,” Riko said brightly, the ‘and interrogate later’ was implied. Taiga and Daiki gulped but nodded. They began dishing up. Tetsuya just sighed and went to grab a plate, but Taiga shook his head and passed the one he had finished dishing up for him.

Then he began piling food on his own plate with Daiki dishing up some of the farther food on to the plate for him.

Everyone began digging in eying the three of them with inquisitive looks.

Taiga couldn’t find the energy in himself to be embarrassed about the lack of personal space and domestic behavior they were showing off.  He doubted the other two did either.

“Strky mentioned they may pop by later,” Wakamatsu said in between bites.

Daiki couldn’t help but muttered, “In Imayoshi speak that means they defiantly will.”

 “I am sure the rest of Seirin will arrive at some point as well,” Hyuuga said with an eye-roll.

 Taiga sighed, his apartment going to get crowded but he wasn’t surprised. He was half expecting it when he offered.  

The conversation lulled.

“I didn’t know you could enter the zone, Kuroko-kun,” Himuro said lightly after a couple minutes of quiet eating.

Pausing in his bite, Taiga looked over Tetsuya to see how he was answer. He felt more than saw that everyone else stopped eating and was watching Tetsuya also wondering the answer.

Tetsuya shrugged as he pushed his food around his plate, “I felt an echo of it during the match against Akashi-kun, and a few times before then but this is the first time I actually dropped beyond the surface.”

“Really, when did you first feel it?” Akashi asked.

.

 

**[Kuroko Tetsuya…]**

At this Tetsuya frowned as he tried to think back to when he first felt the echo.

“Against Takao-kun and Midorima-kun in Interhigh,” Tetsuya decided. Though he suspected he may have felt the beginning of an echo in Teikou but he couldn’t be sure.

Both Midorima and Akashi seemed completive, Tetsuya suspected that they both were thinking back over the match trying to see when such echo would have occurred.

“You never said anything,” Huuyga muttered. Riko nodded looking put out that she never knew that one of her players was showing such potential.

“They were only echoes,” Tetsuya shrugged again.  

“Yeah, but couldn’t you have trained to reach it,” Takao question with a glancing around the table, others nodded wondering why he never said anything.

Daiki as the somewhat expert of the subject, explained, “It does take hours of practice, but the zone can be dangerous and unpredictable. There is no forcing it when you aren’t ready for it.”

“There was also the factor I couldn’t be sure I was feeling my own zone, or just receiving echoes from Taiga,” Tetsuya added, frowning as he noticed an extra piece of chicken on plate.

Taiga was suspiciously focused on eating as he shrugged, “Maybe a bit of both, you are the gatekeeper.”

Tetsuya glared at the back of Taiga’s head but didn’t try and give the chicken back or mention it.

“It was likely both,” Daiki agreed, chuckling at the exchange, even as he slipped some veggies on to Tetsuya’s plate.

 

**[Momoi Satsuki]**

 

Satsuki couldn’t help but be amused by Kagami and Dai-chan’s sneaking more food on Testu-Kun's plate as he was distracted. Even if she was bursting with questions about the zone, what it meant to be the gatekeeper…

“What do you mean feel echoes from Kagamicchi?” Kise asked, interrupting her internal babble to ask one of the questions she wanted answers to.

Kagami, Dai-chan, and Tetsu-kun all shared look that Satsuki was sure was an argument. 

It went on for barely thirty seconds, but it looked to be that Tetsu-kun won as the other two just sighed and groaned as Tetsu-kun set his plate down on the table.

“It is very difficult to explain,” Kagami sighed.

 “When Taiga and I or Daiki and I play as Light/Shadow pair. We have to be in sync to pull off our plays to the fullest extent.  That leads to some blurring on who is exactly is feeling what during the time of the game. So, I honestly wasn’t sure until I entered my own zone who’s echo I was feeling.”  Tetsu-kun explained.

“There is no secret keeping on the court,” Kagami groaned.

“Tetsuya is already hard to lie to, on the court it damn near impossible “Dai-chan whined. Kagami nodded in sympathy.

Tetsu-chan rolled his eyes, “You both are being dramatic.”

“Do you have to deal with this Takao, Himuro, I know you act as a shadow?” Riko asked with a furrowed brow. Drawing that conversation away from the humorous display.

Takao shook his head, “No, Shin-chan and I work as a team, but we never had to deal with this.”

Before Himuro could do more than shake his head, Kagami explained.

“They wouldn’t. For one they shadow to a different type of light. Midoriama is a shooting guard while Murasakibara is a center. For another, neither of them is as instinctive when it comes to basketball.”

“and the third requirement would probably be the shadows had to be able to be a gatekeeper,” Dai-chan added.

“What exactly is a gatekeeper?” Satsuki asked. She heard them mention it too much not to significate. Tetsu-kun just to Kagami and Dai-chan.

 

it was beginning to sound quite mystical.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really like how this chapter turned out but I figured if I didn't post it, I would just keep hitting the same wall over and over.
> 
> I welcome criticisms and critiques. 
> 
> Also, let me know if I misspelled anyone's name.


	3. What do we know?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is a gatekeeper?
> 
> What is the zone?
> 
> How much do we actually know?

**[ Kagami Taiga… ]**

“What exactly is a gatekeeper?” Momoi asked.

The three of them shared a look. Taiga could hear _‘this is your area of expertise’_ written on Tetsuya’s face when he looked between him and Daiki.

Tetsuya wasn’t wrong by any means, but Taiga couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with the abstract thoughts and feelings that he associated with the word. How was he supposed to try and explain them in concrete words?

He glanced at Daiki who looked just as confused about where to start.

Taiga sighed and just decided to bite the bullet. 

“The zone puts us in state of complete focus, it narrows everything down to the game and everything becomes instinctive,” Taiga explained looking around waiting for nods that they were following along, “Daiki and I need someone we trust completely on our team, that can act as tether to remind us and keep us aware of our team the deeper we get in to the zone or we,” Taiga trailed off with a look to Daiki.

Daiki rolled his eyes but took over explaining, “Or you play how I played until the Winter Cup, alone. Tetsuya isn’t necessarily a gatekeeper per se stopping us from entering, Tetsuya more acts as the facilitator between our hyper-focused instinctive play to the rest of our teams. The true zone requires a kind of bridge for it to be brought out fully, and Tetsuya is able to act as one”

“Not saying that we can’t reach the true zone without him but it would take time to build that kind of complete trust, and it would have  never happened in less than a year as it did for Seirin” 

Taiga wholeheartedly agreed. There was just no way that without Tetsuya, Seirin would have gotten to that level of trust in time for the match.

Riko looked thoughtful but didn’t speak up to rebuke Daiki for the remark.

 

**[ Himuro Tatsuya ]**

Tatsuya wasn’t that surprised about the explanation of the gatekeeper but it did raise some further questions.

“Kuroko, what is it like from your end?” Tatsuya asked quietly. Watching as Taiga and Aomine shared a worried look.

“Exhausting,” Kuroko yawned as he burrowed further into Taiga’s sweater,  “It is like trying to stay in the eye of a fast moving hurricane or predicting a raging wildfire. I have to know where, when and how they are going to move at any given time or the play can fail, and during the Direct Zone, it was even worse.” Kuroko explained with a tired shrug.

“What about when you the three of you were in the zone?” Midorima asked looking mildly intrigued. Tatsuya was as well. Everyone else straightened even Atsushi sat up from where he was dozing, waiting for the answer.

Kuroko tilted his head as he seemed to ponder how to answer. Taiga looked away from the staring eyes while Aomine met them head on staring back.

“It was less exhausting, at the moment because there is no second guessing, but it,” Kuroko stopped and shared a look with Aomine who only nodded in reply.

“But it was  too seamless.” It wasn’t Kuroko or Aomine that said anything but Taiga who turned to look at them. For a second Himuro could have sworn his adopted brother eyes were purple instead of red but then the moment was gone. It left him unsettled and wary for what was about to come.

Kuroko nodded, “It changed something, we don’t really know what but it created pathways that weren’t there before.”

“What kind of pathways?” Akashi demanded. 

 

**[ Aomine Daiki… ]**

None of them expected to get through dinner without having to talk about what exactly went down during the match, but it was starting to wear on Daiki and Akashi's demand just made him feel even more tired. He knew the other two were feeling exhausted as well. 

Daiki rubbed his eyes as the phantom feeling of sand prickled at the corners. Wondering just how they would explain it. _Why did they have to have perceptive friends?_

Taiga interrupted with sigh, “Okay, before Daiki and Tetsuya confuse you more,” Daiki gave Taiga glare but Taiga just shook his head, and Daiki just grumbled but let Taiga continue, Tetsuya didn’t even react content to just watch, “think of it as if there was a string, like a tether, connecting Tetsuya and me, and a string connecting Daiki and Tetsuya. Then during the match, a small one connected Daiki and me. 

Now the circuit was stable with Daiki and I’s zone flowing simply because Tetsuya was acting like a grounding connection, but with Tetsuya’s zone, there was a sudden influx of power that burns out the resisters and fail-safes, and we were left without a grounding connection.” Tetsuya flinched, and Daiki was quick to grab his hand and rubbed soothing circles. It wasn’t Tetsuya’s fault, they had no idea that this would have happened. 

“Usually at the end of a match the fixation and awareness, dies down because the tether is either let go or changes I guess, and it goes back to normal, but the full brunt of three zones running along the circuit has worn what may be permanent pathways”Taiga explained softly. 

“What are the side effects?” Kise asked with narrowed suspicious eyes. Obvious by the way the other watched them, they were wondering as well. Likely noting any action that struck them different wondering if it was a side-effect.

“So far, hyper-awareness of each other, intuitive knowledge of the others thoughts and emotions, and an obscuring of the edges where one of us begin and the other ends,” Tetsuya muttered as he curled further into his sweater. 

“Long term effects who know, it will make attending different schools interesting and future matches a learning experience,” Daiki remarked. 

Taiga and Tetsuya both grimaced. None of them were excited to see what future problems this was going to cause. 

“Before if you asked me what exactly the zone was, I have said that the zone was just mental fortitude of a person with the years of ingrained experience and passion, but now, I am seeing it is a little more mysterious than expected,”  Daiki finished with a long drawn out sigh.

This is a little more than mysterious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not the greatest fan of this chapter, so if you have any tips or suggestions to improve feel free to drop a comment. 
> 
> Thanks for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone that reached this point,
> 
> Tell me your thoughts!
> 
> Whether its the image you got while reading or just that you liked it, I welcome all comments!
> 
> If you want to rant at me, please find me at https://scatteredwritersramblings.tumblr.com/ <<< created it just for all my new works and more fandom oriented blog.
> 
> Edited 08/26/2018


End file.
